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Thursday, 26 February 2015

"I've never been so hung over
in all my life," groaned Lily. "I didn't know I could drink so
much."

A man entered the tavern, a dandy, judging by his
dress. He walked into the middle of the room, right next
to their table.

"Hear ye! Hear ye!" The man bellowed.

"By the gods!" Samuel
cried out in agony, grabbing his head and trying to bury his face in the table.
"Make it stop!"

"The Hamlet of Low Ridge is calling
for the assistance of a group of brave individuals to rid the region of a pack
of horrible creatures!" The crier continued, in a loud, clear voice. "Any interested parties
are to travel to Low Ridge and meet with Walter, Bailiff of Low Ridge! Reward
will be negotiated upon acceptance!"

"I'm merely doing my job,"
the dandy replied. "There's trouble in Low Ridge and they seek adventurers.
I was told that you were adventurers. I've read the flyer and cried the news, I
shall go now."

"Wait a minute," said
Huthgar. "Just wait a minute." The dwarf looked at his companions.
"I lost three teeth in that last fight."

"So?" Lily looked at the dwarf through blood-shot eyes.

"So, I've still got more teeth
than I've got coins," Huthgar replied, hooking his thumb in the direction of the
crier. "This guy's offering us work."

"He's advertising work,"
Samuel corrects. "Not offering."

Lily swung her head to look at
Samuel and immediately regretted it. "Ugh!" She put her hand to her forehead. "So what's the difference?"

Samuel shrugged. "Nothin', I
guess." He turned his head to look at the crier and groaned. "So,
what's this job again?"

Thus begins the Adventure: Incident
at Butcher Creek.

The Manor, issue #4, is larger than
Tim's first three endeavors, because it's a longer adventure.
Tim uses creatures unique to himself, I'm thinking, as I am unfamiliar with
several of those he outlines in this issue. Although some of his monsters are
familiar to me, if a bit different.

The problem at Low Ridge is the
Shadow Panthers plaguing the town. For a description of this animal, think
Displacer Beast. (For some reason I couldn't copy & paste this from the
pdf) The artist rendition found in the 2nd Edition Monster Manual is
more in line with Tim's Shadow Panther than is the artwork depiction in the 3.5
Monster Manual. Only, remember that the Shadow Panthers have four tentacles,
not two.

While the Shadow Panthers are the
immediate problem, they are not the only problem and certainly not the
"biggest" problem, especially over the long term. No, that honor
belongs to the Or'Drog, a creature of Chaos, from the Abyss. It's trying to
build a gate into our world; something that cannot be allowed, obviously.

"The shadow panthers are a problem," admits Horta, the village Elder. "But they're not the only problem, nor the biggest."

"There's a bigger problem?" ask Samuel, eyes wide.

"Oh yes," Horta replies. "A much bigger problem and a more dangerous one."

"Well this just keeps getting better and better," says Lily, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

The Or'Drog is slowly corrupting the
people of the village of Low Ridge. Its shape is that of a floating head,
similar in concept to a Beholder, or a Grell, but with powers all its own.
Confusion, Charm, Sleep and Polymorph are its main weapons, though there are a
few others.

All in all, a very nice little
adventure, something I've come to expect from Tim. And Tim throws in a few
other unique monsters near the end. Another fine work from our friend Tim, over
at Gothridge Manor.

Saturday, 21 February 2015

I use House Rules to correct
mistakes. The mistakes are not perceived, they are real. Take for instance:
Frostburn.

I was looking through this
publication just the other day and came across yet another example of the
Writers not understanding their Stats and the Editors not catching, or
correcting, the mistake. In Frostburn, they confuse Strength with Dexterity.

What is Strength? Strength is
damage, plain and simple. What is Dexterity? Dexterity is "to hit,"
plain and simple.

When Heracles tries to grab the wily
little thief, he misses. That's poor Dexterity. But, what happens when Heracles
finally succeeds in grabbing him? The wily little thief is finished. That's
Strength. Heracles has a hard time catching the quick little rogue, but, once
he does, Heracles deals incredible damage.

The mailed Knight foolishly laughs at
d'Artagnan. Why? The Knight knows that d'Artagnan cannot ever pierce all that
plate armor. That's poor Strength. But, as I said, the Knight does so
foolishly. Why? Because of d'Artagnan's great Dexterity. We all know that d'Artagnan
is most definitely going to find – and hit – that one spot where the Knight's
armor doesn't fill the tiny gap. Poor Strength, yes, but fantastic Dexterity.

Strength is damage, plain and
simple. Dexterity is "to hit," plain and simple.

In Frostburn, I find that they
assign the Dire Polar Bear (page 115) a +25 "to hit" with its Claw
Attack and a +20 "to hit" with its Bite Attack. The Dire Polar Bear
has Strength of 39 and Dexterity of 11.

In Frostburn, I find that they
assign the Saber-toothed Tiger (page 118) a +10 "to hit" with its
Claw Attack and a +12 "to hit" with its Bite Attack. The
Saber-toothed Tiger has Strength of 24 and Dexterity of 14.

So, the animal with the worse
Dexterity has a much better chance of hitting its target than the animal with
the best Dexterity. This makes sense to you?

The Dire Polar Bear's bite does 3d8+7
points of damage, while the Saber-toothed Tiger's bite does 2d6+7 points of
damage.

So, the animal with the worse
Dexterity has a much better chance of "hitting" its target than does
the animal with the better Dexterity, while at the same time, the animal with the
much greater Strength does only a little more damage than the animal with the
considerably lesser Strength.

Absolutely nonsensical.No, I cannot foresee a time when I will forgo House Rules.